1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an object manipulator robot device and to a method of manipulating objects with a robot equipped with a device of this kind.
This method and this device are particularly intended for precision industries such as the electronics industry or the clockmaking industry.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Patent application DE 37 01 874 discloses an object manipulator robot system including:
a pick-up member made from a thermally conductive material and having at least one surface of contact with the object to be picked up,
means for cooling said pick-up member adapted to freeze the interface between said member and said object, thus fastening them together, including local means for cooling said pick-up member directly and peripheral means for cooling said local means,
means for heating said member adapted to liquefy said interface, so releasing said object, and
control means for said cooling means and said heating means.
The above system can manipulate large objects such as textile pieces at relatively high rates of operation.
The object of the present invention is to provide a system of the abovementioned type which is adapted to manipulate very small parts and which can achieve even higher rates of operation.
The above object of the invention is achieved with an object manipulator robot device including:
a pick-up member made from a thermally conductive material and having at least one surface of contact with the object to be picked up,
means for cooling said pick-up member adapted to freeze the interface between said member and said object, thus fastening them together, including local means for cooling said pick-up member directly and peripheral means for cooling said local means,
means for heating said member adapted to liquefy said interface, so releasing said object, and
control means for said cooling means and said heating means,
wherein said local cooling means include a pair of local cooling elements mounted on respective opposite sides of said pick-up member and said peripheral cooling means include a pair of peripheral cooling elements connected to said local cooling elements by arms made from a material of high thermal conductivity, such as copper.
Because of the above particular structure, a device is obtained in which the pick-up member has a very small surface of contact with the object to be picked up but areas of heat exchange with the local cooling elements that are sufficiently large to enable the pick-up member to be cooled very quickly.
A device is obtained in this way which can manipulate very small parts at a very much higher rate of operation than those of the prior art.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of manipulating objects applied to the abovementioned device and suited to a context of industrial fabrication at very high rates of operation.
The above object of the invention is achieved with a method of manipulating objects with a robot equipped with the above device, said method including the following steps:
controlling said peripheral cooling means so that they maintain said local cooling means in an environment in which the temperature is in the vicinity of said freezing/thawing temperature of said interface,
placing said pick-up member above an object to be picked up,
activating said local cooling means to freeze said interface to pick up said object,
transporting said object from the location where it was picked up to a location at which it must be put down, and
activating said heating means to liquefy said interface to put down said object.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent on reading the following description and examining the accompanying drawings.